Some data about pottery of the population on the territory of Belarus in 1st millennium AD

  • Vera N. Bakhmatova Kalmyk Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, 8 Ilishkin Street, Elista 358000, Russia
  • Palina S. Kurlovich Belarusian State University, 4 Niezaliezhnasci Avenue, Minsk 220030, Belarus

Abstract

The article is devoted to some results of the pottery technology studying among the population of particular monuments of the 1st millennium AD in the territory of the Upper Dnieper, Polesye, Shchara, and Upper Neman regions. The study of ceramic complexes was carried out using a historical and cultural approach. Information has been received about potters’ skills in selecting the raw materials, preparing pottery paste, and firing vessels. There is a mass tradition of using natural clay with a minimum amount of natural sand inclusions, broken stone, organic solutions, and the liquid component of cow manure tempers in pottery paste. A specific organic temper in pottery paste made from waste from threshing grain crops has been identified. The tradition of using chamotte and sand is characteristic of pottery technology among the population of the Shchara region and Polesye. The use of oven devices and stove devices for pottery firing was recorded for the firing of vessels. The general level of pottery technology is archaeo-pottery earthenware production. The trend of transitioning from home-made tableware to custom craft production has been recorded.

Author Biographies

Vera N. Bakhmatova, Kalmyk Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, 8 Ilishkin Street, Elista 358000, Russia

PhD (history); junior researcher

Palina S. Kurlovich, Belarusian State University, 4 Niezaliezhnasci Avenue, Minsk 220030, Belarus

PhD (history), docent; head of the department of archaeology and special historical disciplines, faculty of history

References

  1. Dubitskaya NN. Proizvodstvo keramicheskoi posudy naseleniem Pripyatskogo Poles’ya v epokhu zheleza i rannego Srednevekov’ya [Production of ceramic tableware by the population of Pripyat Polesie in the Iron Age and early Middle Ages]. Minsk: Belaruskaja navuka; 2007. 180 p. Russian.
  2. Bobrinsky AA. Goncharstvo Vostochnoi Evropy. Istochniki i metody izucheniya [East-European pottery. Sources and research methods]. Moscow: Nauka; 1978. 272 p. Russian.
  3. Bobrinsky AA. The history of economic development of pottery production among the population of the Upper and Middle Dnieper Region in the 1st millennium BC – 2nd millennium AD. «History of Ceramics» Bulletin. 2020;2:21–32. Russian. DOI: 10.25681/IARAS.2020.978-5-94375-316-9.21-32.
  4. Plavinskii NA, Tarasevich VN. [Preliminary results of excavations of the necropolis of the second half of the 1st millennium AD Navry II in the context of studying funerary monuments of the Northern regions of the Republic of Belarus]. Kratkie soobshcheniya Instituta arkheologii. 2021;263:298–326. Russian.
  5. Bobrinsky AA. Aktual’nye problemy izucheniya drevnego goncharstva [Current issues of ancient pottery study]. Samara: Samara State Pedagogical University; 1999. 232 p. Russian.
  6. Tsetlin YuB. Drevnyaya keramika. Teoriya i metody istoriko-kul’turnogo podkhoda [Ancient ceramics. The theory and methods of historical and cultural approach]. Moscow: Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences; 2012. 379 p. Russian.
  7. Tsetlin YuB. Keramika. Ponyatiya i terminy istoriko-kul’turnogo podkhoda [Ceramics. Concepts and definitions of the historical and cultural approach]. Moscow: Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences; 2017. 346 p. Russian.
  8. Bobrinsky AA, Vasil’eva IN. [On some features of plastic raw materials in the history of pottery]. In: Vasil’ev IB, editor. Problemy drevnei istorii Severnogo Prikaspiya [Problems of the ancient history of the Northern Caspian Sea]. Samara: Samara State Pedagogical University; 1998. p. 193–217. Russian.
  9. Morgunova NL, editor. Turganikskoe poselenie v Orenburgskoi oblasti [Turganik settlement in the Orenburg region]. Orenburg: Izdatel’skii tsentr OGAU; 2017. 300 p. Russian.
  10. Bakhmatova VN. [Special aspects of determining the proportion of sand temper in the pottery paste of «Dzhuketau» ceramics of the 10–15th centuries]. «History of Ceramics» Bulletin. 2023;5:157–188. Russian.
  11. Ilyushina VV. [On the problem of the identification of the organic solutions in ancient ceramics]. In: Lozovskaya OV, Mazurkevich AN, Dolbunova EV, editors. Traditsii i innovatsii v izuchenii drevneishei keramiki. Materialy Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii; 24–27 maya 2016 g.; Sankt-Peterburg, Rossiya [Traditions and innovations in the study of ancient ceramics. Proceedings of the International scientific conference; 2016 May 24–27; Saint Petersburg, Russia]. Saint Petersburg: Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences; 2016. p. 78–81. Russian.
  12. Loshenkov MI. [The botanical finds from the village of Borisovichi the First]. In: Chubur AA, editor. Arkheologicheskie issledovaniya v evroregione «Dnepr» v 2013 g. [Archaeological research in the «Dnieper» Euroregion in 2013]. Bryansk: Bryansk State University I. G. Petrovsky; 2014. p. 269–271. Russian.
  13. Loshenkov MI. Arkheobotanicheskie kollektsii Belarusi [Archaeobotanical collections of Belarus]. Minsk: Izdatel’skii tsentr BGU; 2021. 400 p. Russian.
  14. Lashankow M, Ljabedz’ka U, Kasjuk A, Kurlovich P, Tarasevich V. [Botanical intermixtures in the ceramics of the Prague culture from the settlement Vostrau in the south of Belarus]. In: Dunai VI, editor. Materialy Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii «Gosudarstva Tsentral’noi i Vostochnoi Evropy v istoricheskoi perspektive»; 25–26 fevralya 2022 g.; Pinsk, Belarus’ [Proceedings of the International scientific conference «The states of Central and Eastern Europe in historical perspective»; 2022 February 25–26; Pinsk, Belarus]. Pinsk: PolesSU; 2022. p. 141–147. Belarusian.
  15. Gorbanenko SA. Palaeobotanical materials of the Prague culture. Kratkie soobshcheniya Instituta arkheologii. 2015;238:299–318. Russian.
  16. Yanushevich ZV. Kul’turnye rasteniya yugo-zapada SSSR po paleobotanicheskim issledovaniyam [Cultivated plants of the South-West of the USSR according to paleobotanical studies]. Kishinev: Shtiintsa; 1976. 214 p. Russian.
  17. Vasil’eva IN, Salugina NP. [From the experience of the experimental firing pottery. Experimental archaeology]. In: Agapov SA, editor. Eksperimental’naya arkheologiya. Vzglyad v XXI vek. Materialy Mezhdunarodnoi polevoi nauchnoi konferentsii; 6–12 avgusta 2012 g.; Novaya Beden’ga, Rossiya [Experimental archaeology. A look into the 21st century. Proceedings of the International field scientific conference; 2012 August 6–12; Novaya Bedenga, Russia]. Ulyanovsk: Pechatnyi dvor; 2013. p. 57–89. Russian.
  18. Volkova EV. The experience in the application of zonal patchwork modelling in the reconstruction of the methods of manufacturing the neolithic period’s large vessels. Samara Journal of Science. 2015;3(12):37–55. Russian.
  19. Volkova HV, Tsetlin YuB. [On the study of ancient ceramics firing regimes]. In: Lozovskaya OV, Mazurkevich AN, Dolbunova EV, editors. Traditsii i innovatsii v izuchenii drevneishei keramiki. Materialy Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii; 24–27 maya 2016 g.; Sankt-Peterburg, Rossiya [Traditions and innovations in the study of ancient ceramics. Proceedings of the International scientific conference; 2016 May 24–27; Saint Petersburg, Russia]. Saint Petersburg: Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences; 2016. p. 76–77. Russian.
  20. Bjalickaja G. [Topography and building of the settlement of Zarubinetsky culture in Pripyat Polesie]. In: Ljawko VM, editor. Matjeryjaly Mizhnarodnaj navukovaj kanferjencyi «Aktual’nyja prablemy rannjaj gistoryi slavjan»; 29–30 verasnja 2009 g.; Minsk, Belarus’ [Historical and archaeological collection. Proceedings of the International scientific conference «Actual problems of early history and the Slavs»; 2009 September 29–30; Minsk, Belarus]. Minsk: Belaruskaja navuka; 2011. p. 152–169. Belarusian.
  21. Rusanova IP. Slavyanskie drevnosti VI–IX vv. mezhdu Dneprom i Zapadnym Bugom [Slavic antiquities of the 6–9th centuries between the Dnieper and the Western Bug]. Moscow: Nauka; 1973. 99 p. Russian.
  22. Kasjuk AF. [Slavic antiquities of the 8–10th centuries on the territory of the Belarusian Polesie]. In: Egoreichenko AA, editor. Etnokul’turnye protsessy na territorii Belarusi v I – nachale II tysyacheletiya nashei ery. Materialy Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii, posvyashchennoi 90-letiyu professora E. M. Zagorul’skogo; 6–7 dekabrya 2018 g.; Minsk, Belarus’ [Ethnocultural processes on the territory of Belarus in the 1st – beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. Proceedings of the International scientific conference, dedicated to the 90th anniversary of full professor E. M. Zagorul’skii; 2018 December 6–7; Minsk, Belarus]. Minsk: Belarusian State University; 2018. p. 93–101. Belarusian.
  23. Tsetlin YuB, Volkova EV. Stoves for pottery firing (according to ethnographic and archaeological data). «History of Ceramics» Bulletin. 2023;5:43–64. Russian.
Published
2024-05-17
Keywords: archaeology, settlements of the 1st millennium AD, ceramics, pottery technology, historical and cultural approach
Supporting Agencies The research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research within the framework of the project «Land use systems in the forest zone of Eastern Europe during the era of the Great migration of peoples (3rd–7th centuries)» (grant No. 20-59-04002). The authors express sincere gratitude to E. F. Kasyuk, N. S. Myasnikov, V. M. Tarasevich, and V. A. Makovskaya for their assistance in the collecting materials.
How to Cite
Bakhmatova V. N., Kurlovich P. S. Some data about pottery of the population on the territory of Belarus in 1st millennium AD // Journal of the Belarusian State University. History. 2024. 2. PP. 68-90.
Issue
No 2 (2024): Journal of the Belarusian State University. History
Section
Archaeology

Copyright (c) 2024 Journal of the Belarusian State University. History

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The authors who are published in this journal agree to the following:

  1. The authors retain copyright on the work and provide the journal with the right of first publication of the work on condition of license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial. 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
  2. The authors retain the right to enter into certain contractual agreements relating to the non-exclusive distribution of the published version of the work (e.g. post it on the institutional repository, publication in the book), with the reference to its original publication in this journal.
  3. The authors have the right to post their work on the Internet (e.g. on the institutional store or personal website) prior to and during the review process, conducted by the journal, as this may lead to a productive discussion and a large number of references to this work. (See The Effect of Open Access.)